In some sort of web redesigner and geolocation gone mad https://io9.gizmodo.com insist on going to https://www.gizmodo.com.au. Doesn’t seem what you do, if you are in Australia you can only access a more generic gizmodo site with Australian comment section.
8 responses to “Weird, io9 can’t be accessed from Australia”
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate geolocation. I constantly get redirected to German versions of sites, though I can read English, thank you very much, and often don’t want the German site. Vice is particularly bad to the point that I can only access the English language Vice and Motherboard sites via a direct link. Just trying to get to the top level site takes me to the German version with no option to switch.
Honestly, webdesigners, users are smarter than you think. Many of us can read multiple languages and we can figure out how to switch languages just fine, if you offer us a drop down menu. We’re also smart enough to figure out which version of a site we want to see and what articles we want to read.
Yes – e.g. The Guardian site does default to Australia for me but it is just one menu change and I get the UK version (or the US version) without fuss.
I really can’t see what they gain by making this difficult for people. Yes, the geolocation might make things convenient in genereal but don’t lock people out completely for no obvious reason.
It seems like the people who design websites like this are all monolingual, have never travelled outside their home country and have never cared about anything that happened in the rest of the world.
Also, a lot of software is not designed for multilingual people, e.g. the version of Skype that came preinstalled with my PC sends out friend invitations in German by default. Inconvenient, if you’re trying to talk to someone in Canada.
I have a similar but slightly different problem, in that it can be difficult for me to access the English language version of sites sometimes, and I’m a terrible monolingual 😦 I speak/read a little Japanese, but that doesn’t exactly help in Taiwan, Thailand or Korea, where I have mainly been these last 6 months or so. I really should learn Korean since I’m planning to spend 3-6 months per year here right now.
I find this incredibly annoying.
I do read Gizmodo now and then and did even long before any link with io9. But I click on a link to a io9 article, which then redirects me to Gizmodo which does not have the article i wanted to view in the first place. Grats on breaking the internet Gizmodo Australia,if you wanted to turn me off reading your website your doing it.
If you alter the non-AU URL by inserting .au after the .com, you should be able to see the same story. I don’t know why they don’t have their redirect set up properly for that.
Camestros Felapton 
8 responses to “Weird, io9 can’t be accessed from Australia”
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate geolocation. I constantly get redirected to German versions of sites, though I can read English, thank you very much, and often don’t want the German site. Vice is particularly bad to the point that I can only access the English language Vice and Motherboard sites via a direct link. Just trying to get to the top level site takes me to the German version with no option to switch.
Honestly, webdesigners, users are smarter than you think. Many of us can read multiple languages and we can figure out how to switch languages just fine, if you offer us a drop down menu. We’re also smart enough to figure out which version of a site we want to see and what articles we want to read.
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Yes – e.g. The Guardian site does default to Australia for me but it is just one menu change and I get the UK version (or the US version) without fuss.
I really can’t see what they gain by making this difficult for people. Yes, the geolocation might make things convenient in genereal but don’t lock people out completely for no obvious reason.
LikeLike
It seems like the people who design websites like this are all monolingual, have never travelled outside their home country and have never cared about anything that happened in the rest of the world.
Also, a lot of software is not designed for multilingual people, e.g. the version of Skype that came preinstalled with my PC sends out friend invitations in German by default. Inconvenient, if you’re trying to talk to someone in Canada.
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I have a similar but slightly different problem, in that it can be difficult for me to access the English language version of sites sometimes, and I’m a terrible monolingual 😦 I speak/read a little Japanese, but that doesn’t exactly help in Taiwan, Thailand or Korea, where I have mainly been these last 6 months or so. I really should learn Korean since I’m planning to spend 3-6 months per year here right now.
LikeLike
I find this incredibly annoying.
I do read Gizmodo now and then and did even long before any link with io9. But I click on a link to a io9 article, which then redirects me to Gizmodo which does not have the article i wanted to view in the first place. Grats on breaking the internet Gizmodo Australia,if you wanted to turn me off reading your website your doing it.
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I can access io9 using the VPN function in Opera. Why I should need to do this is anybody’s guess…
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If you alter the non-AU URL by inserting .au after the .com, you should be able to see the same story. I don’t know why they don’t have their redirect set up properly for that.
https://www.gizmodo.com/2017/04/new-footage-from-pirates-of-the-caribbean-5-reveals-the-return-of-keira-knightley
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/04/new-footage-from-pirates-of-the-caribbean-5-reveals-the-return-of-keira-knightley
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That is a weird workaround but it works.
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